Which Came First — The Chicken Or the Egg?

by Alice Shirrell Kaswell, AIR staff

Which came first — the chicken or the egg?

The question has a reputation for being difficult, perhaps even impossible,
to answer. Philosophers treat it as a conundrum. But in the hands of an
experimental scientist, the question is simple and straightforward, and
the answer is easily obtained.

I doubt that I am the first to solve the chicken-and-egg problem, but a
search of the scientific literature turned up surprisingly few accounts —
none, in fact — of previous work. Here, then, is an account of
my work on what turns out to be a trivial question.

How the Problem was Solved

Figure 1. The 1993 USPS regulations for mailing adult chickens.
The more recent version is substantially the same, but does not feature
the clear sub-section heading “Mailability of Adult Chickens.”

Which came first — the chicken of the egg? I tackled the question
experimentally, using a chicken, an egg, and the United States Postal Service
(USPS).

I mailed the chicken and the egg, each in its own separate packaging, and
kept careful track of when each shipment was sent from a post office in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and when it subsequently arrived at its intended
destination in New York City.

The Chicken

In mailing the chicken, I was careful to adhere to the restrictions described
in the Postal Service’s Domestic
Mail Manual [DMM] 57, as updated in Postal
Bulletin [PB] 2209, April 3, 2003. (See Figure 1.) This, the most recent,
version of the DMM states that:

Figure 2. The 2003 USPS regulations
for mailing chickens.

"Adult chickens must be sent by Express Mail. The Express Mail containers
used must pass the standards in International Safe Transit Association (ISTA)
Test Procedure 1A (detailed in Publication 2, Packaging for Mailing); be
designed to remain intact during normal handling; be constructed to totally
confine the chickens; contain shavings or other material to prevent damage
to the bottom of the container; and be ventilated properly to ensure humane
treatment in transit. The number of birds in each parcel must not exceed
the container manufacturer’s limit."

I mailed the chicken in a crate obtained from a colleague who does research
with poultry at a midwestern university. Details are available on request,
for anyone who wishes to replicate this experiment.

The Egg

I mailed the egg in standard packaging obtained through an industrial supplier.
Details are available on request, for anyone who wishes to replicate this
experiment.

Bon Voyage

Figure 3. Eggs. Each of the eggs shown here is similar to the
egg used in the experiment.

I mailed both the chicken and the egg at 9:40 a.m., on a Monday morning,
from the Harvard Square post
office, in Cambridge. The staff there told me that this was the first
chicken anyone had mailed from Harvard Square in recent memory, and perhaps
ever. Nonetheless, the postal employees handled both the chicken and the
egg deftly, with dispatch, and with courtesy.

I took the subway from Harvard Square to the Boston train station, and
from there boarded a train to New York City, a distance of approximately
200 miles, arriving that afternoon at Penn Station. I immediately went to
the post office, to await the arrivals of the chicken and the egg.

Results

The James A. Farley General Post Office is open 24 hours a day, so I was
able to wait there until both items arrived.

I inquired once per hour for both the chicken and the egg.

That day, Monday, neither the chicken nor the egg arrived.

The next day, Tuesday, neither the chicken nor the egg arrived.

The chicken arrived at 10:31 a.m. Wednesday. The staff at the post office
told me that this was the first chicken anyone had mailed to the James A.
Farley General Post Office in recent memory, and perhaps ever.

The egg arrived that same day, at 9:37 p.m., eleven hours after the chicken.

Conclusion

It has now been empirically determined that the chicken came first, the
egg second.

However, seeing the history of previous questions that were taken up first
by philosophers and only later by scientists, I am loath to predict that
these results — clear as they are — will settle the question
to everyone’s satisfaction.

EDITOR'S NOTE: After publication of this article, it became clear that
some people are intensely not satisfied. For an example, see
THIS LETTER which insists that the chicken must come first.

FURTHER NOT: See THIS
REPORT of
purely theoretical work, done in 2006, that reaches an opposite conclusion
to the result reported here.